Flatbeds are used for transporting cargo and can take several forms such as flatbed trucks, detachable flatbed trailers and flatbed rail cars. These flatbeds are maneuvered into a loading bay where the cargo can be loaded onto the flatbed or unloaded from the flatbed. These loading bays can include a flatbed servicing station that provides a mobile elevated workers' platform with an elongated deck as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,832,525, which is incorporated herein by this reference. The platform is selectively moved toward and away from a flatbed and has safety features for stopping movement of the platform toward the flatbed when a foreign object is detected between the platform and the flatbed. A plurality of side-by-side safety gates is provided on the side of the deck adjacent the flatbed, and a guard gate is provided that can be positioned across the rear of the flatbed.
Nonetheless, unless the sides of the flatbed are aligned precisely parallel to the sides of the mobile elevated workers' platform, there will be gaps between the sides of the flatbed and the sides of the platform. These gaps can occur for example when the flatbed is backed into a loading bay at a slight angle and can pose hazards to the workers that load or unload the flatbed. Pulling the flatbed out of the loading bay and backing it back into the loading bay again takes time and can idle the workers waiting to load or unload the flatbed. Sometimes these gaps are not noticed until after the tractor is detached from a detachable flatbed trailer, resulting in further idleness while a suitable tractor is re-attached to the flatbed trailer before the flatbed trailer can be repositioned in a parallel alignment with the deck of the mobile elevated workers' platform.